Cloud technology has been a popular topic for a few years now, and it doesn’t look to be slowing down any time in the near future. With even the juggernauts known as Google, Microsoft and Apple leaping into the fray with their own offerings in the field, it’s safe to say the technology is serious, and here to stay.
Yet, it’s perfectly understandable that many business professionals are at a loss as to why they need this technology. It’s very easy to misunderstand this technology as just an added expense that does nothing that existing servers, networks and internet connections don’t already do.
In order to fully appreciate why every business should be looking into cloud-based storage and communications, it’s first imperative to look at what the technology really is. The term cloud is a major misnomer, so it’s understandable that most people not working in the tech sector are a bit confused on this point.
Put simply, cloud-based systems are a de-centralized data center. In other words, where older architecture used individual locations containing arrays of servers to store data and relay communications, cloud systems use interconnected clusters that can be on entirely different continents, connected over the World Wide Web.
This provides tremendous advantages to businesses.
Ease of Access
One of the greatest proactive advantages of cloud systems like this is the ease of access produced by the loss of centralization. With servers located all over the world, it’s possible to access communications and data at a reliable speed from any location.
Employees who must travel for the company will be able to vouch for how difficult connecting to a closed company LAN, or local data center has always been while abroad.
Better Security
Criminals have attacked corporate communications and data in a number of creative ways over the years. Some crack the local Wi-Fi, while others hack into the local network through one of the gateways to the internet. Still others actually burglarize business locations or data centers, and steal the servers physically.
With a decentralized cloud system, it’s pretty much impossible for thieves to locate and steal any given server since there is no fixed concrete network for them to hack into.
More Uptime
Disasters happen. Sometimes they’re manmade, with the previously-mentioned criminals digitally attacking servers and networks, bringing them down. Other times, hardware simply breaks down, or some catastrophe occurs where the equipment happens to live.
Given that cloud systems, offered by companies like Telesphere, are distributed across large areas, often with many redundancies in place at that, it’s nearly impossible for any attacker, disaster or system failure to bring these systems down. Even if one cluster of servers storing important data, or relaying important communications fails, there’s another one paired up, with clones of all the information, ready to take over.
Affordability
In the long run, these systems almost pay for themselves. The lack of a need for local, physical equipment to perform these tasks, paired with no costly data center expenses means that once a business fully migrates to a cloud infrastructure, these are the only expenses related to that technology which must be incurred.
The internet itself was designed in a non-centralized way by the military, originally, as a network that could survive nuclear war. Distributing data and communications in the same way, over that very network, really makes perfect sense not just for businesses but for everyone.